Adobe Flash Player Premium Features for Gaming
So…
On March 28th, 2012 Adobe Announced “Adobe Flash Player Premium Features for Gaming“. Adobe will have new pricing for those creating certain types of advanced content. Content that is much more performant and of much higher quality than what developers (and their end-audience) are used to seeing in the browser.
It is my estimation, that the amount of current projects that this pricing will affects is very small. The amount of developers now or in the future that this pricing will affect is very small. However overreaction and misunderstanding about Adobe, this announcement, and the last 6 months of related news does have a negative affect on public perception, business owners, and the technologies chosen for new projects.
Before the community takes it out of context that “Adobe explains that in the near future, some developers will be required to pay Adobe on royalties from their projects” and overreacts about it — here is a clear programmer-friendly explanation shown below.
Who Pays?
How Much?
Let’s assume a company (or individual) creates a royalty-applicable project (see above). Here are a few sample payment scenarios to Adobe. If my math is wrong, please send a comment below. Prices are USD$.
- 50,000 revenue (or less): Payment to Adobe = 0
- 75,000 revenue: Payment to Adobe = 2,250
- 100,000 revenue: Payment to Adobe = 4,500
- 500,000 revenue: Payment to Adobe = 40,500
- etc…
Community Reaction
Using Google, Twitter, and Facebook we see the reaction of the community over this announcement. The gross majority of media, bloggers, and developers are exaggerating the effect of this announcement. I appreciate the anger, but not the libel. Many err to say something like ‘all Flash developers will pay Adobe soon’, which is as we I’ve outlined here, not true.
The few balanced reactions to the announcement are here;
- Rob Rusher’s - Adobe Flash Player licensing doesn’t apply to you!
- Lee Brimelow’s – Quick comments about Unity and premium features
- Any more?
Full disclosure: Some of those listed are of course Adobe employees or have an otherwise vested interest in Adobe’s side.
Related Posts
- Setup Flash Builder For AIR 3.2 Stage3D for iOS/Android
- FlyerGame – One Game, Many Many Frameworks
- Angry Birds’ Screams on Facebook with Flash
- Considering Flash-To-Mobile Development
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The Vocal Minority
Bad press will hurt Flash being chosen for new projects. That I agree with and that is sad. Blame the messenger sure, but also blame the sensationalism of the community.
Truly, relatively few developer’s projects are affected directly by this pricing. And the quality offered by ‘Flash Player Premium’ is different than what is currently considered ‘Flash’ and is so high-quality that there are no rival alternatives to in-browser technologies. Don’t agree..
- Please comment a link to any ‘Flash Player Premium’ project (Using BOTH API’s mentioned, regardless of revenue) which is in-development or already launched?
- Please comment a link to any in-browser non-Flash project that rivals the quality of a ‘Flash Player Premium’ which is in-development or launched?
What do YOU Think?
- Is this good or bad? Remember taxes pave your roads. Ha.
- Please comment below.
Some horrible use of statics going on in that programmer friendly explanation!
Touche! Haha.
What if your app never dispatches the RevenueOverFiftyThousandDollarsEvent?
You forgot something important here :
( YouApp.accesses(ApplicationDomain.domainMemory) || YourApp.use(OneOfTheNumerousLibraries.whichAccess(ApplicationDomain.domainMemory)) )
That makes a big difference IMHO
Sure. Can you list some of the libraries to help the readers?
it’s any c++ lib converted via alchemy afaik. box2d (not the pure as3 one) fits easily, so you could fall in that slot more easily than you’d expect. i get it, they will charge big studios for big games etc, but small ass devs might be surprised to receive an invoice by the post some time.
So for example a ‘small dev’ company who makes a royalty-applicable project and earns for example $75,000 in revenue would pay $2,250. ( (75k-50k)*.09). Does that sound unreasonable?
adobe is pretty happy to brag about angry birds on fb using stage3d. had they used box2d alchemy (apparently they used the as3 one) they’d owe adobe 9% of their earnings.
Another negative point in all of this is that all content that uses Stage3d and domain memory must be licensed, regardless if it is being monetized or not, otherwise, anyone with the debug flash player will be looking at the Adobe watermark. And currently, that entire licensing process and cost is 100% unknown.
I had asked Renaun about the licensing watermark and what happens if a main SWF loads one SWF that uses stage3d and another SWF that uses domain memory. He tested it and you’ll get the watermark then or will require a license. http://renaun.com/blog/2012/03/how-to-know-that-your-flash-content-requires-a-premium-feature-license/
There is a mandatory watermark shown for a properly licensed royalty-applicable project? Can you point to a link that explains that?
There is only a watermark for a SWF that is not licensed or loads a collection of SWFs that aren’t licensed.
Although I agree that using domain memory should never be some premium feature, I don’t think this is as bad as some people around tell…
When Flash finally “dies”, I’m sure it’s going to be because of bad press rather than HTML5 or some other technology…
@HB, please tweet that last sentence to @srivello so I can retweet it. Haha! Seriously, well spoken.
Oh Flash fanboys rejoice!!, Now you can be charged for the rest of your Apps life for features that should have been added freely. Adobe (Mudheads) have seen fit to find an even better way to kill off Flash. It wasnt bad enough that most major smart phone makers have forbid support for flash on their phones. But now we have the mudheads tacking on an even better reason to switch to Html5 ( javascript ) and / or java.
By the way, Java kicks Flashed butt in the memory access and speed department . Yes you need a ton of libraries to do Java games for facebook, but its free,
You fan boys that think 9 percents not bad, start adding on the take a site such as Facebook collects if your doing a social game. And payment to the people who host and help maintain your product.
This is pure greed, and with Steve Jobs bashing Flash before his death. It seems Adobe is wishing for a grave next to his, I think Steve left you a pine coffin boys, just check the behind the stage. R.I.P Flash, R.I.P,, …
I think the Cartoon character Snagglepuss said it best, “Exit STAGE Left!!
Or for a more modern reference…
as cartman says, “Screw you guys!, I’m goin home”